


there's nothing wrong with you (it's true)

by magicandlight



Series: The States [9]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Statetalia
Genre: Fluffy?, Gen, Great Lakes Fam, I think?, Trans Male Character, Tyler is trans, fight me, he's a pure babe and i would die for him, supportive family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 21:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17926268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: Oliver figures it out himself, so Mindy is technically the first person he tells.





	there's nothing wrong with you (it's true)

Oliver figures it out himself, so Mindy is technically the first person he tells.

Mindy bites her lip thoughtfully and squints at him. "Is this why you wanted me to cut your hair?"

He nods.

"Do Corey and Michael know?"

"Not yet."

Mindy's eyebrows furrow. "Do- Am I not supposed to call you Claire anymore?"

He doesn't wince, but it's a close thing. "Please don't?"

Mindy looks guilty and nods firmly. "I won't. I'm sorry." She hesitates. "What do you want to be called then?"

"I don't know yet." He hadn't found a name he wanted to be called forever yet.

Mindy brightens. "Then we'll find one! Oliver too, he knows right?"

He grins. "Yeah."

\---------------------------

He picks his name in the library on the hottest day that summer with Mindy and Oliver both grinning at him, and he can't help but smile every time they say his name.

He still hasn't told Corey and Michael, though, and that means he's still suppressing flinches every time someone says  _Claire_ , but Mindy seemed to be taking her promise very seriously- she hadn't said it once since then, resorting to tapping him to get his attention around the others. Once, she had thrown a strawberry across the table at him to get his attention, and then he couldn't explain why it made him smile to Micheal.

\---------------------------

He has a nightmare that Corey and Michael hate him and Alfred takes his star away and he can't stop crying.

He taps on the wall between his room and Oliver's, hoping for a tap back.

There isn't one, but he should have known it was too late at night for Oliver to be awake-

There's a soft knock on the door, and he pulls the quilt tighter around himself as it opens.

"I heard you crying," Oliver says. He pushes his glasses up as he sits down beside him, stealing some of the blanket.

"I had a nightmare."

Oliver nods and doesn't ask what it was about. Oliver leans his head on his shoulder, and they stay like that until the sunrises.

\---------------------------

Telling Cass is less daunting than telling either Corey or Michael, but it's still scary.

"Um, Cass, can- can I tell you something?"

Cass's eyebrows scrunch together in confusion, but she still nods. "I guess?"

He leans up and whispers it into her ear.

Cass blinks. "Oh.  _Oh_."

He picks at his fingernails and waits for her to say something.

Cass smiles at him. "Hey, you're okay, I still love you- I guess you're my brother now and that's- that's okay. It's more than okay." Her nose scrunches up as she struggles for words. "You're still you...just more you? I'm sorry, I'm terrible at this."

He's beaming. "You're great."

Cass ruffles his hair, still smiling.

\---------------------------

Cass greets him by ruffling his hair the next day. "I forgot to ask, but what do you want to be called? I mean, are you going to go by a different name or..?"

He smiles shyly. "Tyler."

Cass smiles back. "It's a good name."

\---------------------------

He tells Riley next, because he's pretty sure that if Cass is okay with it then Riley will be okay with it.

(Riley doesn't ruffle his hair like Cass did, but he does smile at him and say he's proud and that's just as good.)

\---------------------------

Corey's laying on her stomach on her bed reading when Tyler knocks gently on her door frame.

He's so nervous he's shaking.

"Corey?"

"Yeah?" She flips the page of the book.

His mouth feels very dry and he's sweaty and it's hard to breathe and-

\---------------------------

He wakes up in his bed with the quilt pulled up to his shoulders and tucked in.

The background talking stops and a moment later Cordelia and Michael are both at his side, both looking concerned.

"You passed out in my bedroom," Cordelia tells him. "You should have said something earlier if you felt sick." She brushes his bangs back off his forehead.

"I'm a boy," Is what he blurts out instead of any actual logical response. The reality of what he's blurted out hits him the second after he says it, and he ducks down under the blanket in a feeble attempt to hide.

"What?" Michael says, and then: "Ow! Don't hit me, it was a reasonable reaction!"

Cordelia sighs heavily and he just burrows further under his comforter. Maybe he can live with Cass after Alfred takes his star. Cass is pretty cool, but the idea still makes him tear up.

"Cl- Iowa," Corey says softly. "Sweetheart, come out please."

She doesn't  _sound_  mad, but sometimes if she gets really mad her voice goes deadly soft so it  _could_  mean she's  _really_  pissed at him. "No." He mumbles out.

Cordelia sighs and begins pulling at the blanket. "Iowa-"

He pulls it the other way. "My name is Tyler," He mumbles cause hey, it's not like it can get worse.

There's a sudden tug from the other direction as Michael pulls at it and the blanket comes off.

He looks between the both of them, frantically scanning for any trace of anger.

Michael scratches the back of his neck. "So. Tyler?"

Tyler resists the urge to hide. "Tyler Martin Jones." He looks away. "...I picked it out myself."

Cordelia puts her hand over her mouth, and Tyler tears up because he knew she wouldn't like him anymore-

He goes completely still when Corey hugs him.

"I'm sorry, I should have known you were going through something, I'm sorry-"

She's  _crying_.

This keeps getting  _worse_. Tyler looks at Michael, who looks just as shaky as Cordelia. 

"How long?" Michael's voice is soft too, but he doesn't get quiet when he gets mad. 

Tyler fiddles with his sleeves. "...since before I got rid of all my dresses."

"That was when you were a _territory_." Michael looks guilty. Tyler looks down. 

Cordelia pulls away. "We didn't notice, I'm-" She looks at Michael. "We're sorry." 

They're sorry? What do they have to be sorry for? 

"Ty, You're crying," Michael frowns and moves to wipe his face. Cordelia hugs him like he's a little baby again and he barely hears the quiet  _we love you_  she says. 

Tyler is smiling so hard his face hurts and still crying. Cordelia hugs him and lets him bury his face in her neck.

\---------------------------

Corey helps him replace his ceramic star because that's easy- it's a simple as pulling out an extra and painting it.

He replaces  _Claire_  with  _Tyler_  and it feels like he can breathe for the first time. 

His metal star still says  _Claire Morgan Jones, State of Iowa_  and it feels a bit like a slap every time he sees it, but he can deal. They don't have extra metal stars laying around like they have ceramic ones. It can't just be replaced. 

The older states seem to get the picture pretty quickly- the  _hey, Claire_ 's decrease in volume until he realizes it's been a whole month since he's heard anyone call him other than Tyler. (Well, Mindy's chosen form of revenge for him calling her Mini her whole life is to call him Ty-Ty, which isn't so bad.)

\---------------------------

One day, two months after he told them, Cordelia and Michael give him a surprisingly heavy box.  

Tyler sobs when he pulls out a metal star.

He cries harder when he actually sees  _Tyler Martin Jones_ engraved into it. 

**Author's Note:**

> title from the village by wrabel which is a really really beautiful song. 
> 
> i'm on the fence about this one??? idk i don't feel i did my ty baby justice.


End file.
